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The verb trasalire should be conjugated (I report the Indicative present tense) as

Io trasalisco; Tu trasalisci, Egli trasalisce ...

But since the verb may be perceived as a composite of salire, it is often used with its conjugation:

Io trasalgo; Ti trasali; Egli trasale ...

I'm sure this is not the only case of this phenomenon. Do you know to which extent this mechanism of compositional usage of a root is accepted by the speaking community and the official grammars?

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    Same for assalire (assalisco / assalgo)
    – nico
    Nov 17, 2013 at 16:08
  • martina, do you know if tha same applies to scendere in reference to trascendere. In other terms, which is right, io trascendo or io trascio?
    – Kyriakos Kyritsis
    Nov 17, 2013 at 17:49
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    @KyriakosKyritsis I don't understand where would "trascio" come from. I guess the ambiguity arises with verbs in -isc probably?
    – martina
    Nov 17, 2013 at 17:55
  • @Kyriakos Kyritsis: it would rather be trascendisco, but that is wrong, but in this case trascendo is the only right form.
    – nico
    Nov 18, 2013 at 20:05

1 Answer 1

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I think it all depends whether the speaker "hears" the root. For me it is really difficult to see "salire" in "trasalire", for example; on the other side, I jump when someone says "il papa *benediva la folla", since "benedire" for me is "bene dire", and so I say "il papa benediceva la folla".

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  • +1 I agree that the solution probably lies in the ear of the listener. For instance, I am much more confortable hearing benediva then benediceva!
    – nico
    Nov 17, 2013 at 16:08
  • I, too, prefer benediva over benediceva, though.
    – Kyriakos Kyritsis
    Nov 17, 2013 at 17:45

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